Experimenting with Alternative Methods

As an artist I mostly specialize in painting and more sculptural works, so drawing is not my strongest discipline. I haven't experimented much with drawing, I mostly try to draw realistic portraits or realistic anatomical body parts.

When I discovered that this project was about alternative drawing methods I thought this was the perfect opportunity to experiment outside of my comfort zone. Usually I am the type of artist that has to plan out everything before I can even begin. Especially when it comes to concepts and formal elements, because that is where I always put my focus. But for this project I really wanted to experience how to create art in the moment and just have fun! I wanted this piece to be solely based on materials and process.

For this piece I was inspired by beehives and the repetitive pattern that they make. I think there is so much beauty within a beehive. It has the perfect blend of geometric shapes with an organic feel to it. I also love the concept of controlled chaos, and I think beehives demonstrate that in such a unique way with its perfect shapes and the chaotic busy work to create such a complex structure. So I wanted my piece to hold that same express that same feel to it.

I wanted to work in wood because I have never made a piece with wood before and I think it gives my piece an interesting feel to it. Especially because the wood I picked out still has the tree bark left on the sides. It makes my piece feel very organic and relates it back to nature. I started off by drilling different sized holes the the wood in a controlled chaotic pattern. I wanted some to be drilled all the way through the wood and some to just be indents so that the holes had more dimensionality. I also wanted to experiment with candle wax and have it drip out of the holes. This way my piece also integrated the sense of smell into it, but I mostly wanted to use the wax because I thought it related back to bee wax. Unfortunately since this is all experimental, it did not turn out the way I had intended. But since this project was all about the process I just went with it and kept playing with the melting of the wax. I also wove yarn into the some of the holes to create a more geometric plane but also because some man made beehives are weaved together so I thought it nicely related back to my inspiration.

An artist I was inspired by was Judi Harvest, she creates these gorgeous beehive sculptures. I will add images of her sculptures down below. I think her use of a light source in the center of her beehive was a brilliant choice because it accentuates the pattern and allows you to see all the delicate details in her work. I wanted my piece to be a lot more abstract than hers but it was her pieces that made me see the beauty in beehives in the first place and I think that's very powerful.

Judi Harvest's website: http://judiharvest.com/biography
Different alternative methods to art: http://www.studentartguide.com/articles/inventive-mixed-media-techniques
Cool Article I found: https://creators.vice.com/en_us/article/artist-fixes-damaged-objects-by-placing-them-in-beehives

(Judi Harvest's pieces)